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The iPhone 6 Rumors Heat Up

The new iPhone 6 is expected to come in two sizes, one that will have a 4.7-inch screen, and another with a larger 5.5-inch version.Credit screenshot via nowhereelese.fr

When the iPhone first came out in 2007, it looked like a giant among mobile phones. This fancy new slate-like phone weighed in at 4.8 ounces and had a 3.5-inch diagonal screen.

Yet now, the iPhone 5 — which is even bigger than its predecessors with a 4-inch diagonal screen — seems tiny compared to most Google Android and Windows smartphones. (Let’s not even compare it to phablets. That would just be mean.)

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The iPhone 6 is expected to be bigger than its predecessors.Credit screenshot via MacFixIt

But look no further than the Apple rumor-mill to see that the quest for bigger is about to give the iPhone 6 a much-needed face — um — stretch.

There have been reports coming from all over the globe and blogosphere that Apple is expected to release two new iPhones this year, one that will have a 4.7-inch screen, and another version with an even larger 5.5-inch one.

Pictures of “dummy” iPhones, which are usually just mockups of the size and shape of the device, have been seen from all corners of the Internet. Some have shown up with a gray body. Others show a black and white casing with gold accents — you know, for the bling.

The most recent image comes from the Australian Apple accessories site and blog MacFixIt. While the size and shape look the same, the body — which is green — is clearly a prototype.

“We have just received from our contact in China a photo of what seems to be the back of an iPhone 6,” MacFixIt wrote on its site. “We believe the picture to be genuine as we have received leaked product pics in the past that have also proven to be legitimate after official Apple product launches.” The site added that the rumors of a 4.7-inch iPhone fit “the proportions of this photo.”

If the images prove to be true, the iPhone 6 will be slim and have a slightly curved back along the edges. For those into the nerdy, nitty-gritty details, the phone is expected to have an A8 chip, which will include both a quad-core 64-bit processor and quad-core graphics, an 8-megapixel camera sensor and operate on Apple’s yet-to-be announced iOS 8.

So do customers want a bigger, flatter iPhone? Earlier this month when I wrote about the HTC One, I noted that while I loved the idea of a larger phone, I couldn’t bring myself to switch to Google Android, which still feels clunky to me.

Some readers agreed with me. “I’m old and would love a larger screen,” wrote Alan Burnham in the comments.

“My iPhone 5s felt too small, and I was glad to let it go,” said another reader who had recently jumped to a larger Windows phone.

But others disagreed, seeming quite happy with the size of Apple’s current offerings. “Like another (female) reader, I want to keep my phone in the most convenient ‘phone holster’ imaginable: my bra,” wrote a woman from New England. “The 5s iPhone is already sufficiently larger than my former early iPhone that it is making that practice less comfortable than it used to be.”